Fatigue Behaviour of Polymer Composite Sandwich Beams

Abstract

The static and flexural fatigue characteristics of foam cored polymer composite sandwich beams are investigated. The skins of the beams are made from hybrid glass-aramid fibres set in epoxy resin and the core materials are linear and cross-linked polymer foams. The applied load in a ten-point configuration approximates a uniformly distributed load throughout the span of the beam which is simply supported at the ends. The testing frequencies are 0.33-0.91 Hz. Failure modes relate to both core shear and skin failure.